Happy Monday, everyone. Foggy and exhausted from a busy weekend, but no time for that. We have a big one today to start the week. The tenth track on the Mix CD is the first track and single from Amy Winehouse’s renowned sophomore album, 2006’s Back To Black. More importantly, based on my experiences it’s the song that most casual music fans remember Amy for. It won awards at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008 for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance as well as helping to vault Amy to Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, and a nomination for Album of the Year (which she lost to Herbie Hancock). It peaked at #7 on the UK Singles Chart (somehow Amy’s only Top 10 hit in the US) and #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song. It will almost certainly be ruined in a few months when that country singer who botched the National Anthem at the MLB Home Run Derby attempts a remake. In case you chose not to read the title, of course I’m talking about “Rehab”.
I have a mixed relationship with “Rehab”. I’ll start with the obvious: Above everything else, it’s a catchy ass pop song. Written by Amy Winehouse and produced by Mark Ronson. You can’t go wrong with that duo…literally. You can’t find a bad song those two made together because it doesn’t exist. One thing I wonder that hardcore Amy fans probably know but I’m not completely clear on is who decided that Back To Black would be a throwback to classic soul albums. I know Amy had the fascination with Shangri-Las and Ronson had the relationship with Dap Kings. It was probably a group effort. Regardless of the origins, the decision to take that voice and those lyrics and pair them with old school soul was pure genius.
I also wonder if they were intentionally writing a song that would/could become a favorite in every bar around the world. It wasn’t just the lyrics (more on that in a second). The second Amy Winehouse sings, “They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said,” it’s physically impossible not to respond, “No, no, no!” Put me in a bar with my friends and get a couple drinks in me and I’m not just singing, I’m going to defiantly shout, “No, no, no,” at the top of my lungs. Like so many great songs (“Born in the USA” comes to mind first) you can ignore the troubling lyrical content and blissfully shout out the chorus.
Amy’s songwriting on “Rehab” is phenomenal, as usual. I’m not alone in this opinion. As I mentioned above, Amy won the Grammy for Song of the Year for this song in 2008. In 2006 when the song was released I think Amy’s reputation was a bit of a foulmouthed bad girl that liked to put down a few drinks. “Rehab” reinforced that. By the time she performed the song on the Grammys in 2008 it was obvious to the world that the lyrics were more autobiographical than we might have originally thought. Post-2011 “Rehab” is a cautionary tale and a full-out cry for help that we all missed. And that’s the primary reason I say I have a mixed relationship with the song.
While her fans were all drunk in the bar singing “Rehab” with their friends, we should’ve been listening to the lyrics beyond the fun “No, no, no,” part. Verse 2:
The man said “why do you think you here?”
I said “I have no idea”
I’m gonna, I’m gonna lose my baby
So I always keep a bottle near
He said “I just think you’re depressed”
This me “Yeah baby, and the rest”
Follow that up with Verse 3:
I don’t never wanna drink again
I just, oooh, I just need a friend
I’m not gonna spend ten weeks
Have everyone think I’m on the mend
It’s not just my pride
It’s just ’til these tears have dried
Not only is this an anthem for people in denial, it’s also someone who’s at the very least lonely and heartbroken. I don’t want to use the word “depressed”, but she did, so I guess I will too. I’m not a doctor, but she sounds depressed. Who was helping this girl? Who was there to tell her that getting blackout drunk every night wasn’t the answer and that she needed help? From what I’ve learned at least a few good people. Unfortunately her father wasn’t one of them. I wonder what he thinks now when he hears the infamous line, “I ain’t got the time, and if my daddy thinks I’m fine,” repeated throughout the song.
All of this makes “Rehab” bittersweet, upbeat, soulful, tragic, catchy, witty, gritty, honest, and melancholy at the same time. It’s a brilliant piece of work. Yet, I can’t fully embrace it. Also, as catchy as it is, I just don’t think it’s one of the best songs from Back To Black. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great song, but as far as I’m concerned, the Song of the Year was on that album, but they picked the wrong one. “Back To Black” was more deserving. So was “Love is a Losing Game”. “Tears Dry On Their Own” contains my favorite lyrics on that album and it was a single. That would be my winner of Song of the Year over all of them. More on that song when we get to it.
Enough about the songwriting. Let’s talk remixes for a moment because there are a lot of them. I love hip hop and most of the rappers who appeared on Amy’s tracks, but they don’t work for me. They all sound like a rapper who never met Amy went to the studio and lazily recorded 16 bars for them to shoehorn in after the second chorus. No collaboration, no change to the song. Just a rap verse for the sake of it in a song that doesn’t need one. The one minor exception is the Jay-Z remix of “Rehab”. While I’m still assuming Jay and Amy were never in the studio together, at least Hov’s flow fits the song. It sounds like he wrote it over the beat to “Rehab” and not just some random beat 4/4 beat. I still prefer the original and think the verse is unnecessary, but if you’re a big Jay-Z head or you like to hear a rapper on a good track, this version is for you.
The only version I think comes close to the original is this stripped down “Rehab” demo. The instrumentation is raw as hell and Amy is still working on the lyrics and melody. I’d be happy to hear a cleaner version of this on the album but it doesn’t fit with the classic soul vibe of the rest of the album. Still a cool peek into the early work that Amy put into “Rehab”.
My choice for my favorite live performance is probably an unpopular one. The obvious choice is her Grammy Award performance from February 2008. It was a well deserved victory lap for her and a wonderful moment in the midst of an unforgettable night, but that doesn’t make it my favorite performance. Instead I go back to the endless well of greatness that is her set on MTV’s 45th At Night from June 2007. My understanding is that she was not in her best condition that night and she was frequently making mistakes that required the band to stop and start songs over. There are hints of it in the broadcast, but the final product that made it on TV is incredible. Amy’s vocals are as good as ever. She also rarely performed live with the Dap Kings so this is a special performance. She opens the second act with an uptempo version of “Rehab”. The Dap Kings were hot and, honestly, it takes Amy a minute to catch up. By the second verse she’s doing her usual thing, improvising and flawlessly weaving her way in and out of the track. It’s barely three minutes long but it’s the best performance of “Rehab” that I’ve seen.
When I wrote about Amy back in February I said that I couldn’t allow “Rehab” on my Amy Winehouse Mix CD because the lyrical content of the song was too troubling for me knowing everything that happened to her after the song was released. I stand by that sentiment. However, you just can’t have an Amy Winehouse mix without “Rehab”. You can’t tell her story and celebrate her music and exclude arguably the most important song. Even if I don’t like the lyrics, that song is an undeniable force. It put Amy on the map here in the states and won her countless awards. There may be no Amy here without it.
That’s all I have on “Rehab”. I need to chill or this is going to be a long week of writing. I’m gonna dig a little deeper into Amy’s catalog for tomorrow’s track. No Grammys, Ivors, or radio play for this one. Just a dope song. See you tomorrow.
mookiefantana 